TotTE Episode 2: A Matter of Trust
by Experiment 442
Summary: Did you know that politics is made up of the words 'poli', meaning 'many' in latin and 'tics', as in 'bloodsucking creatures? A vital asset is lost when armies deivde, literally. It is the matter of the trust that causes the landslide to start.
1. Chapter 1

"Sir, two T-304s just exited hyperspace!" Walter warned. "Shields are up all over the EU."

"Where's the Odyssey?" Jack asked. Sam and Daniel ran in. "Two this time." Jack said.

"Which have been taken this time?" Daniel asked.

"The Antorphier and Digrian." Jack answered. "That makes nearly four in the last five months."

"They are opening fire on Britain!" Colonel Walter said. "Planet defences are uncloaking and intercepting."

"Fire back." Jack said. "Make sure they don't get a missile down."

"Yes sir." Walter tapped onto the keyboard frantically. "Ground-to-space APBWs are concentrating on the Antorphier."

The gate room shined open as the vortex of the gate whooshed open. SG-4 jumped through followed by a torrent of bullet fire.

"Close the iris!" Jack cried. "You were on a routine check of a, French off world colony, what the hell happened?"

"The trust attacked on our check-up sir, two 304s." One of the men said.

"Are there any casualties?" Jack asked.

"They launched two nukes as soon as we refused to surrender." He caught his breath. "Then beamed one hundred soldiers down and shot at anything that moved. We were lucky not to get killed."

"Sir, two more nuclear weapons have been launched!" Walter cried.

"Get the orbital defence system to intercept." Jack ordered. "Damn, where're Sheppard's elites when you need them?"

"Well, they can't even run around the complex once without having to stop for breath." Manning said. "But their aim is good enough with a normal rifle."

"Well, it is nearly twenty miles around the complex once Manning." John said. "I'd have to stop to catch my breath."

"Yeah well, they'll need it more. Endurance is the one thing they'll need if ten are going to have to take over and then fly a 304."

"Well, I'll show you the gear they'll have then." John said with a smirk. "You'll enjoy most of it."

"If it's lazy stuff like a HUD, then no, if its lasers, yes."

"We've got a mix."

"Fine."

"Now then you lot." Manning said as the group of one hundred men and women stood at attention before him. "This gear is pretty much lazy. You've got this thing," he held up a strange rifle, "which is a much, much smaller version of an APBW. It will fire a constant stream and will hit anything you want it to. But don't sweep, it's like a mini-gun, it'll chew ammo. But in this case its an energy pack. You can hold about ten of these, don't throw 'em away 'cause they recharge automatically and faster if you plug 'em into something."

He was standing in front of sheet of the Asgard super alloy about ten centimetres thick. The same thickness as a door on a BC-304.

"That is what you have to cut through on a 304." He shot four times on it with small sweeps to make a visible square then walked over and kicked it through. "And this thing will cut through it like a very hot knife through butter." You've only been training a month, but the Trust has started a war in the Milky Way. So you'll be starting your fight in a few weeks. Everyone was taken aback by this. "All of you knew this would happen. It hasn't spread here because we need to be united to defeat the wraith."

He picked up the armour. "This is the armour you've got to wear. It's comfortable by armour standards and won't chafe. It's bloody light and strong. It'll take P-90 bullets for sure and most energy weapons. It's made from the gou'ld Kull armour. They put a HUD in the helmet and some sort of sensor thing makes it so that you know where you're shooting. It has three modes: normal, night vision, and heat. It has a sensor thing in top right corner that tells you how your teammates are doing and what their vitals are and tells you what damage their armour has taken. To me, this is lazy stuff, but it'll probably save your life in close combat." He put on one of the arm bands and a knife shot out from his wrist. "Yeah, there're also a lot of cool gadgets in there as well as a cloak." He took the armour and shot at it with the rifle. "This stuff grows back as well. It's got nanites that take energy from a cell on the back to 'heal'. But, it will grow back whether it was a fatal wound or not." He took the helmet and shot at it with the APBR. It made a clean hole through the middle of the glass and went out the back. "But don't get cocky, you are not immortal. You can still die, so I'm going to train you how to keep quiet while being stealthy without the armour on." He raised his hand and four men jumped up from the grass behind him and raised their rifles. "This lot started from behind you."

The gate teams were slightly edgy for the rest of the day as they were running their twenty miles. Manning was keeping a steady pace at the front when his radio sparked to life.

"Manning, half the soldiers from the army have taken the generator room and two APBW arrays!" Sheppard said. "Get back here and gear the teams up for this. They're staying still for the moment, but their going to move soon."

"We're moving by the eastern APBW array, has that one been taken?" Manning asked while still keeping his pace.

"No, I'll beam you back to gear up."

"Ok, half of them are about to die anyway." He looked behind him and raised his arms, telling the teams to stop. "We're gearing up, it's started!"

"You look like you haven't gone two meters sir, how do you do it?" John Mellor gasped as he took deep breaths.

"I'm used to it." Manning replied as a white flash beamed them to the storage room where their armour and weapons were being secretly stored. "Gear up and get ready, no time to take the gear to changing rooms so men turn your backs and don't peak." He ordered.

When they were ready he told them to stay in radio contact and to keep cloaked. They were all silent, knowing that they might not see a friend again after this, knowing that most of their once good friends would be holding those weapon positions. Knowing they would have to kill to retain the peace of the base. The Tau'ri Civil war had begun.


	2. Chapter 2

"Keep quiet." Manning ordered silently through the mike in the helmet. "Three on our left." They slowly approached and sat in wait. "Let's gather some information first."

"I mean," One of the soldiers started, "we just need to wait for the trust 304s then they'll pick us up and take us to a swift victory."

"How do we know it'll be that easy?" Another soldier asked. "We've been fighting for two years and they think we can just win in two weeks?"

"Yeah, quick strike attacks on all systems controlled by the wraith." He replied. "They're taking ships from the Milky Way and sending them here."

"How many?" The other soldier asked. "Ten 304s and about sixteen 305s is what I've heard. You'll have to ask Caldwell when he picks us up."

"Twenty six ships?" Mellor asked. "How'd they get so many?"

"They don't have that many," Saunders said, "They're lying to the troops to get more soldiers."

"We've got all we need from them." Manning stood up and calmly walked over the three men while cloaked.

"I hate this." Saunders said to himself.

They each pushed the small blades out of their wrists and hooked their arms around the men's necks. A quick stab in the back and they went silent.

"Let's keep moving." Manning said. "We're going to have to do that another hundred times."

"You never get used to it do you?" Mellor asked. "I'm all for big guns, but some of these guys I used to know."

"Yeah," Manning said, "and they'll kill you without a second glance, do the same to them" He took the APWR from his back and ran down the hall. The other two men quickly followed doing the same. "We need to get the generator room free then all move onto the APBW arrays." He said through the radio to all the gate teams. "Remember to keep quiet until you need to show yourselves."

"Manning, they're moving towards the east APBW array." John said. "Remember you're outnumbered ten to one."

"We understand."

Two soldiers were up ahead. They were each surprised when they heard footsteps but saw no men.

"Who's-" The man was cut off as manning thrust his dagger into the soldier's neck. He did the same to the other soldier before they could let out a cry.

"Don't shoot unless you have to." He added to everyone. "They only thought we were getting extreme training for the war effort. They don't know that we have this gear."

The affirmative reply came from all the team leaders.

The metal halls made an echo whenever you stepped, even in dampening armour. They didn't care much for the noise, only for heat sensors and such. A slight whizz of gas flew out of a pipe line. Manning held his arm.

"Gas," He said shortly. "Trap, we haven't seen any soldiers for two minutes." Saunders turned his heat sensors on. He could see two small devices on either side of the corridor. "You see it as well?"

"Yes," He said. "They must be cloaking mines as well."

"No, not mines, just normal sensors." He paced back about twenty meters. Saunders and Mellor did the same. He threw a grenade down the hall until it hit the trip wire. The white flashes of bullets rained into the hall from a side corridor and into the gas cloud. The grenade went off and the cloud exploded brightly. They were so far away that they only felt a slight wave of air. "Be aware of traps, heat sensors only from now on."

They continued on their way down the hall and passed the remains of soldier. A group of soldiers were walking towards them when they came out of a corner. They looked around confused then felt their earpieces. They looked around in horror of the footsteps with no owners.

"Is this a good time to open fire?" Mellor asked.

"No," Manning replied. He ran forward and caught two soldiers in the neck with his knives. Then pulled through and stabbed the other two in their chests. They cried out and footsteps could be heard from the generator door. "Now,"

They aimed their APBRs at the group of eight soldiers running towards them. A shot went off and went through one soldier's armour and into the next three behind him. They each choked then fell to the ground riving in pain. One was killed instantly. The other four soldiers were cut down by two shots from Manning.

"Let's move in." He said as he jumped forward. He rolled passed a corridor. "Ten of them."

"Grenade?" Mellor asked as he peeked around the corner.

"In the generator room?" Saunders pointed out.

"Right," Mellor said while his helmet looked around the corridor. "Well, here's when you wish for projectile weapons."

"He's right," Manning said, "they could be standing in front of a power conduit."

"Let's walk passed then." Saunders said.

"It might work, but we have to keep very quiet."

They slowly got up and pressed their feet down slowly with each step their metal boots took. Mellor looked behind them.

"Power conduit for sure, looks like the main."

"Three, two, one." They were all behind the men by the time this order was said. They took six out systematically with a stab into the back of their necks. The other soldiers jumped around and opened fire. Two bullets rebounded off Saunders' chest-plate. Manning and Mellor jumped forward and stabbed the soldiers in their chests with four quick pecks.

They moved through the large rooms and reached the generator control. Pipes thick enough for a human to slide through became more frequent as they approached. The stink would have made nearly anyone gag if it were not for the helmets. A spark flew out from a small pipe as it exploded out with a stream of gas. Their sight was blocked by the hot intensity of the red-blue cloud that covered the sensors.

"Hit the deck," Manning ordered with surprise, "this could get nasty."

"Isn't it already nasty?" Mellor asked sarcastically. "They just tried to kill us! You can't get nastier than that!" His voice was stuttering slightly, he was the furthest from the gas leak.

"Slowly pace through." Manning ordered.

Two more sparks flew out and more red hot gas blasted into the small lane they walked through. Manning jumped out and shot twice at the two groups of three in the larger area in front of them.

The cold plated floor below their feet started to soften as they got closer to the control room. Lines of blue flashed every now and again as energy ran through the couplings. A blinding light would sometimes pour the lane they were in if there was a larger coupling.

"Team 4, how far out are you?" Manning asked.

"We just reached an outer door." The female commander said. "We're now entering the fourth generator room."

"Good, watch out for ambushes and traps." He thought for a second. "They don't want to cripple the base, so you're safer to stick to the pipelines than in the back allies."

"Yes sir."

The group continued to walk down halls and in between large machinery. A walkway went overhead to a room with a glass screen that looked over an opening.

"Start climbing." He ordered as he jumped onto the side of a pipe. Saunders and Mellor did the same, a little slower though.

They reached the walkway and ran down to the door. Mellor made a quick circle in the door. His energy pack flew out of the side and tapped and clocked its way to the lowest floor below them. He pulled out another and reloaded it.

"Ready?" Manning asked.

"Yeah," Mellor said as he pulled the safety hold back over the energy compartment of the APBR with a satisfying click.

"Yes sir." Saunders replied.

"On three." He said. "Three, two, go!"

Manning kicked the circular cutting in and jumped through to the room. Ten soldiers opened fire at them with P-90s. The bullets clicked and bounced off their armour, giving them slight stings. Manning was the first to fire, killing two of them with quick pressure taps in the heart. Mellor shot three times, twice into one and once into another. Saunders fired a few precise beams to finish them off.

Out of the four generator rooms, each holding two Large NIGs, all could be seen from this room. Each wall had a small window showing a room. A pair of staircases reached to the above floor, two meters above them, on either side of the room. They climbed higher up and into sneak attacked the two soldiers standing guard with a stab to the back of the neck. Four staircases went out of this room to the higher floor of each generator room. An elevator in the middle went to the control room ten meters above them.

"Lock and load." Manning said. "We have to go through the sides."

"We need four people for that." Mellor said.

"Yeah, I know."

"Teams two, three and four what are your locations?" Manning asked over the radio.

"We're entering your home-made entrance now." The commander of team two said.

"We are on the above walkway of generator room two." The leader of team three replied.

"We're waiting for the order to go in." The leader of team four said quietly. "We're watching them dawdle and look at the sensors with surprise."

"Wait there, what side are you on?"

"Generator room four." He replied. "There're four men on their way down there. They just got into the elevator."

Manning looked up and saw the elevator descend. When it reached the floor, four men opened fire at what they thought were men. Manning and Saunders looked at each other as the bullets hit the opposite wall of the room. They walked behind the men and stabbed them in their necks with swift movements.


	3. Chapter 3

"On my mark." Manning said. "Three, two, one. Mark!"

The four windows around the trust soldiers shattered open and twelve cloaked soldiers started their onslaught. Manning was the first to get a kill, stabbing the soldier in the neck. There were nearly thirty soldiers in here. Within seconds, they were dead.

"Everyone regroup in control room." Manning ordered.

A few minutes later, the control room was filled with ninety cloaked soldiers. All thirty teams were, and no one had been badly injured. Manning was smiling his head off in his helmet when he stood up in front of them all. Mellor was at the back of the room with his helmet off, pretending he had no body.

"Sit down Mellor, we haven't won yet." Manning ordered. "Teams one to ten will go to the east APBW array, teams eleven to twenty will go to the north APBW array and teams twenty one to thirty will go to the south. Understood?"

"Yes sir." Came the reply.

The teams dispersed out of the windows and were quickly on the ground floor.

"Ok," Manning said. "Just head east, we'll get there eventually."

All of the teams they would bring were now following them. When they were near the APBW array they would split up and move in. After that, it was just a matter or turning on the intercom and telling the last of the soldiers to surrender.

"Yeah, and when we hit a wall sir?" Mellor asked from behind in a mockingly manner.

"You stop and turn around to see if there is a large array of APBWs behind you." Manning answered. "Now let's keep moving. That was the easy part. We've got a third of our forces now."

"Sir, three of them coming up from behind." A woman at the back said.

Manning was sure he heard Mellor mutter something along the lines of, 'you're used to that,' Very quietly. Punched him in the back rather hard and Mellor hissed slightly. "I was only kidding."

Manning smiled and kept on running down the hall, at a pace the others could follow, to their target. The soldiers in front of him looked down the hall in their direction in confusion, thinking that teams one to ten were coming around a corner, then hit the floor as manning struck them both in the necks. He felt like a hunter now, but he knew, eventually, they would receive heat sensor goggles or something like that.

"There's a squad of ten one hundred meters down the next hall to out right and another fifteen around a corner down the left." He heard Saunders warn. "They're trying to catch us off guard."

"This is one of those times when you use guns." He said while pulling out his rifle. He had nearly thirty cloaked soldiers behind him, he didn't feel the slightest worried if they had not noticed the ambush before.

He stopped and looked around the corner. The ten men were standing there. He looked down the other way. He could see a gun nozzle sticking out, barely, into the hall.

"There's a mounted heavy down there." He said. "Shocker grenade Mellor." He ordered.

"Yes sir." Mellor replied as he pulled out the grenade and pressed the button down. He threw it down the hall so that it would rebound into the squad around the corner's area.

A faint moan went out as the grenade's static charge was released. It was extremely deadly and they were only supposed to use them as a last resort. Manning, like the others, had wanted to use them in a situation for some time now. The soldiers down the hall, like Manning had predicted, started to run down the hall to the corner.

As they passed, the three at the front of the column of cloaked soldiers jumped out and took out six instantly. The other four were pinning against the walls now, Mellor holding two in place. Manning walked towards them and put his mike on so that the soldiers could hear him.

"Send my regards to hell." He hissed. He didn't like messing with the people he was about to kill, but these people had betrayed him. He turned his hand on its ball and the four hit the ground. The two Mellor was holding looked like someone had gotten a sword and failed to behead the soldiers. "Keep moving!"

They continued at a steady pace and in ten minutes had reached the east APBW array's area. They slit up and reached their appropriate entry areas. Team one and two would enter the east door, three and four the north, five and six the south, seven and eight the west and nine and ten were going to entre via the roof hatch that covered the array from weather when it was not in use. All the other teams were using this tactic as well around the base. There were two levels to each Array, they placed one team on each level to make sure they could go in and clear the soldiers with maximum effect.

"On my mark." Manning told the teams. "Three, two, one, mark!"

The charge on the door blew open and he felt a slight tremor as the same happened above them. They rolled in and took out the three guards waiting for them with slight pulls of the trigger. The teams to his left and right had just done the same. The four APBWs in this array were in perfect condition.

He fired at five soldiers with, to his annoyance, a sweep which drained the energy cell. He caught it and tucked it away then replaced it as fast as lightning. Mellor looked rather stunned seeing as he wasn't moving. He started moving again as he broke into a run against three soldiers, killing them with three quick stabs.

Manning looked around. There should be more here than there are. The force was larger than they had encountered together. He heard a bleeping from his helmet. It was a proximity alarm set to go off it a 304 was to enter the system.

"Two 304s and three 305s are now entering the system." John warned through the radio in his helmet. "Half of their forces have left the base to be picked up. Are those APBWs online?"

"I've got two teams moving in to the control room right now."

"Negative, they've cut the power conduits sir, even if we repair them," One of the upper teams said. "The main power control was shut down to them a few minutes ago. We must have missed a few of 'em."

It was the same message from the other two arrays. John told them to head the last remaining array and to clean up any rouge soldiers still roaming the base. Technicians had been sent to the APBW arrays to fix them. Manning was receiving orders as he headed back to the control room.

"Think you can do a bit of recon for me Alex?" John asked. "You just need to walk onto the bridge and record what they're saying then hijack a ship to get back here."

"Let me gear up teams two and three first." Manning said. "We'll be back to control in a few minutes."

"Negative on that," John said. "It's either now or never Alex, they just beamed up the troops into a transport."

"Why not open fire on them now?"

"We're still blocked and your teams are still five minutes away from the last battery to manually fire it." He sighed into the mike. "You've got a few seconds."

"We'll do it, but how do we get up there?"

"EMP would take care of their shields for a few seconds, we could beam for up then."

"Sounds like a plan." He looked at Mellor and Saunders. "Just bring up Smith as well."

"Sure thing Alex, her team is going up there with you anyway."

"Good,"

A slight plodding of metal on the metal floor of boots was all they heard as the effects of beaming wore off. They looked around and saw that they were in a weapons locker with a window looking over the planet and into the hall. The six of them, Smith and the two others in her team were beamed in here as well, started to shuffle around the get comfortable. Two security guards were walking passed, one gazed in and walked passed.

"Cloaks on!" Manning ordered with a silent rush in his voice. They each disappeared.

The soldier tapped onto the door and looked inside. He opened it and gazed at the ceiling, he didn't bother walk in because the other guard was looking at him strangely. The soldier ran back and rubbed his head. The other one smacked him on the back lightly and said. 'You're seeing shadows mate."


	4. Chapter 4

(WARNING: the following chapter is rather crazy and may not be suitable for minors)

Getting to the bridge was easy, well, for Edward that was. Alex and John were still trying to get here. Lauren's team was placing mikes around the area to pick up conversations. Edward didn't feel happy sitting in a corner listening, then again, he was beside three guards who only had to walk into him to notice he was there.

"So we take the troops back to home base and continue construction." Caldwell was saying to another captain, he thought it was Petch or something. "What else do they need? We have the army, and a fleet large enough to take the individual super powers on. We don't need to wait."

"Patience," This voice was new, slightly deeper than a normal human's. Mellor nearly gasped. "The new fleet is taking time. Gou'ld technology is only compatible to a certain extent. Six Grâ'taks are being built at the shipyards."

"We will be returning to base in two minutes sir." The helms officer informed.

Caldwell glare at him, the helmsman's expression turned into a fearful slobber, because of something Caldwell did while staring at him. Caldwell returned to the conversation.

"Gra'taks would need to be in large numbers to take out tau'ri ships." Caldwell pointed out. "They'd be knocked over like dominos."

"I am unfamiliar with this saying." The deep voice returned. "What does it imply?"

"That they'd be destroyed as soon as they left hyperspace." Caldwell explained. "We'll give you the APBW technology if you-"

He grasped his head as if in pain then struggled to pull his head up. It suddenly rose then his voice because deeper.

"We shall give you the Asgard Weapons system when we receive the coordinates for meeting." Mellor nearly gasped again as he heard this. It probably was the only way Caldwell could have gone rouge though, as well as killing an entire army of British troops.

"Good, I see you have maintained control of the human Grasiik. Well done."

"It is good to be in control." He replied simply. "We do a slight problem with infiltrators."

"Oh, really?"

"Yes, I have just looked at my scanner screen and one seems to be to my left."

Mellor got up and started to run. He didn't care for the zat fire now headed from behind. One hit his armour and was absorbed. He could now see his hands though. His cloak must have been damaged.

"I'm under fire!" He said into his mike. "Lauren, where are you?"

"Two meters in front of you, now one." Mellor stopped and turned his heat sensors on. Lauren was standing in front of him, now about six inches away. He stepped back and turned around.

Lauren tapped him on the shoulder then signalled to a storage room. He followed her in and they quickly shut the door. They sat, silent, for a few minutes, which seemed more like hours, to Edward.

"It's a good thing its dark in here." Lauren said. "Or else they would have seen you by now."

"Yeah, I just need to stay still and they think I'm a space suit." He chuckled. "Why were you headed to the bridge?"

"To be another pair of ears and eyes." She said.

There was a shudder as they exited hyperspace.

"When I was in the bridge, Caldwell looked at the sensors and saw me. What's keeping them from finding us now?" They both looked at the door and saw nothing there.

"Could be a trap." Lauren warned. "Or they've gassed the area to worm us out."

"Meh." Edward said while shrugging. "Good think these purify air." He tapped his helmet.

"Or they've made it a vacuum out in the hallway." Lauren warned again. "They must think we're dead."

"What about the others?"

"Well I'm sure-" Edward didn't need to see her face to see that she was shocked.

"Mellor! Open the goddamned door now!" Alex was ordering as John frantically tried to hack a storage room door. Caldwell had vacuumed the hallway they were in and it was becoming very cold very fast. "We'll survive about ten minutes in vacuum!"

"I'm hurrying!" John shouted back. "It's not my fault you walked us into a trap!"

"My fault?" Alex grabbed John by the back of the neck and pulled him up. "Who ran down this hallway at the first sign of detection?"He pushed John's head into a wall, it didn't hurt that much. "Now open the door!"

John got back to work.

"Lauren's in the storage room with Edward. I don't trust those two together." Lil was saying for probably the sixth time. He'd lost count already. Why couldn't he have been left in the vacuum? He wasn't built to survive constant conversation. He was used to looking at things which hadn't been touched by living things for thousands of years. He liked silence. He didn't like having someone jabbering in his head for the next, he didn't know how long they'd be like this. It could be forever. He pushed the thought away. Not forever. An hour at least probably before he took his own life. "They were in a gate team together you know."

"Yes, you told me ten seconds ago." He said calmly.

"Did I? Sorry, I just keep talking when I'm nerv-" She stopped abruptly and looked out of the small window at the back of the storage room.

He silently praised the quietness of the cramped storage room. Out of the seven storage rooms, they had to pick the most cluttered one. They were basically face to face. He'd bang his head against hers if he moved it forward an inch.

"Mathew," She said so quietly it nearly didn't register on the mike. "How long do you think we'll be stuck like this?"

"I don't know, an hour at the least." He replied.

"What do we do?" She asked. She came a bit closer to him when she said that.

Damn, never saw that one coming. He thought to himself.

"I'm not getting an answer from the rest of my team." She looked as if she was concentrating on the mike for a second. "Just bumps and static."

"We're in the storage room Edward." John was saying with a chilled tone. "God, it feels like summer in here."

"You were near an engine, weren't you?" He mused. "Keep in touch."

"Sure thing mate." There was a comm. click as the transmission stopped.

"Got anything?" He asked.

"Nope," She tapped her helmet. "There's a lot of noise thought, it's like they're kicking the helm-"

"So she's either killing him," He suggested, "he's being shot, or they're doing it in a storage room on a hostile ship." He chuckled. "What a wonderful first date."

Lauren burst out laughing. She then stopped and looked as if she were cringing.

"Turn the damn radio off!" She shouted. He realised it wasn't at him but at the lovers. She took her helmet off and threw it to the ground. He could hear a slight groan from the helmet every two seconds or so. He realised it had gone to his helmet as well. He took his off and stumbled slightly as he saw a bodiless Lauren standing in front of him. "I guess they wanted you to hear it as well."

"Contact Mathew and Lil, to see if they're ok." Alex ordered with a slight muse in his tone.

"Ok." John replied sceptically. He opened a channel to Mathew and Lil then heard a strange noise from over the mike. It was a slight groan then turned into a scream. He closed the channel and looked at Alex. "What a wonderful place to do it."

Alex nearly burst out laughing, but went for silent laughter. John couldn't hear it, but he knew it was happening behind that helmet. If only he could punch Alex at this moment.

"The subspace tracking device puts them here." Woolsey was saying. "We nearly lost two shadows a few minutes ago. Then they started to stabilise." He was talking to the other shadows, the name the allied soldiers had given them during the retaking of the base. "They're on a gated world on the edge of the Pegasus Galaxy. We think they might try to make a jump back to the Milky Way Galaxy." He pressed a button that turned the screen to show the two galaxies. The Daedalus was shown by a red dot, an unfamiliar sign to all in the room. "We have discovered a fleet of six 304s in the Milky Way Galaxy here." another red dot, this one in the Milky Way Galaxy, appeared. "They each have an escort of two 305s. We are now going to see the Cam feeds of the Shadows in the Daedalus."

After nearly two seconds of live video feed, Woolsey quickly said. "Meeting adjourned!" He turned the video feed off and pointed to the door. The faces of the shadows varied from shock, to nearly dying of laughter, from embracement to wide eye and from turned away to already gone.

Clouds blustered by in the window to Mathew's left. He quickly pulled Lil back up and pointed to the window.

"Armour." They both said as the same time.

The next few minutes were spent deciding what belonged to whom. After finding their armour of course. When they were fully armoured again they looked around. They both cloaked and peeked out of the window. Large buildings surrounded them now. He pointed to a rather familiar sight. It looked like a ha'tak without the pyramid in the centre, but more curved. Where the pyramid was supposed to be was a superstructure of sorts. It looked gou'ld and human at the same time. It was manifesting itself into the braces of the ha'tak with pipes and joints. It filled the entire brace and was flat at the top with a triangular base at the bottom.

"So you're finished now?" Lauren asked from the radio. It sounded like she was using the mike with the helmet off.

"We're doing the exact same thing though." Edward whispered in her ear.

"They don't know that." She whispered back. "Just don't do 'anything'."

"You're by the bridge right?" Mathew replied, ignoring her question.

"Yes."

"You better find a viewport, you'll want to see this." Lil cut in. "It's the last thing I expected."

"We can't really see if anything is in the hallway, our storage room doesn't have a window in the door." She pushed Edward back lightly as he did 'anything' to her. She lowered the helmet and pulled his head closer for a kiss. "That should sort you out for at least a minute!" She whispered urgently. She raised the helmet again. "Go to the corridor outside the bridge and tell us if something is in the hallway. Tell the other two to do the same."

"Why can't you?" Mathew asked sceptically.

"My comm. unit is broken, why else would I have gutted my helmet?"

"You got attacked?" Lil asked. "When?"

"I banged my head when we went into the storage room."

"But it was working then."

"Just do your work." She harshly.

A double click came over the comm. in affirmative, but it didn't hide the "This must be the ship of love or something." Comment from Mathew.

"It's been a minute." Edward whispered in her ear as he pulled her towards him.

"They're defiantly right about the 'ship of love', aren't they?" She received an answer of a kiss.

"It's the other one." Mathew was saying after a few minutes of being of their storage room. "This one has no window."

"So does this one though!" Lil replied in a panic. "The bridge is just there." She pointed to a door that had a red light of 'lockdown' on it. It became green suddenly and opened.

They heard a muffled 'air stabilised' informative voice from the other side. They walked towards it and looked around. The bridge was deserted. They could see two doors without windows to their left and to their right. Zat burns were all around the corridor especially at one particular door. It was the one closest the open space of the bridge.

"Do we go in?" Mathew asked. "Or should we knock?"

"They interrupted us." Lil said, biting down the laughter.

"And if they're still... doing 'it'... what then?" He asked.

"Turn around while I close the door you big baby." He was now standing at the zat burned door. He straightened himself and pressed the open button. He looked inside and saw two silhouettes in the darkness.

Their heads turned to him and both shouted. "Five minutes!" He turned and Lil pressed the close button.

"You big baby." Lil said as she walked by.

"That's why you love me babes."

"Alex and John should be by in a few minutes right?"

He could tell she was smiling behind the helmet. Then she nodded and they hid in the open area of the bridge in a blind spot from the corridor.

"So this one right?" Alex asked.

"Yeah." The one thing John was thinking was, 'revenge' as the door slid up.

He heard a "Five minutes!" from a distinctive male and female voice. Alex closed the door and looked at John.

"I'm demoting you when we get back to base."

"You did it to me first."

"They said five minutes, five minutes ago didn't they Lil?" Mathew asked out loud from the bridge area.

"Yes, they did Mathew." Lil replied him, also out loud.

"Let's get our job done and take this bird back home people." Alex said changing the subject back to work. He was probably annoyed he had been stuck with John in the storage room. At least it was big enough for personal space though.

"You two have fun?" John asked on a personal channel.

"Of course we did. Did you?"

John looked at the two and decided it wasn't worth the time. He walked over to the weapon's control station and sat down.

Lil took the sensors and Mathew the comm. station. Alex took the captains chair.

"How many are on board?"

"Seventy." Lil replied. "I can make that six though."

"When we're ready, we've got two empty chairs." He probably had that on a channel to the two in the storage room as well.

"We're never going to get this done." Edward said with a sigh.

"You're right. Let's do it on the way back in crew quarters." She said with a smile. They kissed again and started to look around on the floor for their armour.

He put his helmet on and heard a "We've got two empty chairs." He rolled his eyes and pulled on the rest of his armour. Lauren took an extra minute while trying to find her underwear. They both walked out and looked at the bridge. It looked empty, they turn over to heat sensors and saw the four of them in seats. There were actually an extra two seats waiting for them. Engineering and fighter control. Why would they need fighter control though?

Lauren sat in fighter control and put her feet up. Alex looked as if he was rolling his eyes as his head made the motion then started to shake slightly.

"Shields are at one hundred percent, engines are fully operational." Edward informed.

"Ok, Lil if you'll do the honours." Alex said.

"Yes sir." She said happily. She pressed one button and a crowd of people appeared to the side of the ship.

"What just happened, Jeff?" Someone asked as they looked at the large ship now to their side.

"I think we were just beamed off." The man, supposedly called Jeff replied.

"Well I can see that Einstein, but why?"

"Maybe it was a fire-drill." Jeff suggested.

"If it was a fire-drill, we would have been ordered to put the fire out. Not be beamed off the ship."

"Good point."

A humming sounded as the engines powered up.

"That's not good."

The side speaker sounded.

"Good day to you." A certainly male voice said. "I am Alex Manning and I am commandeering this ship. You may call us the pirate squad if you wish. Now I bid you farewell."

The ship slowly started to rise then the shield activated.

"They're stealin' our ship!" Jeff cried.

"Bloody pirates!" The other one shouted while waving an insulting finger at the ship.

Caldwell smiled slightly as the ship started to grow smaller. Then the pain entered his head again and he found himself saying: "To arms! Destroy it before it leaves the atmosphere."

But it was too late, the ship vanished through the clouds.


	5. Chapter 5

"You're the laughing stock of the base." Sheppard was saying while they walked down a corridor. "How could you do that on a hostile ship?"

"We were about to die, we got a bit carried away." Lil replied. "At least we got the Daedalus back."

"Yeah, the Daedalus," He cleared his throat. "We wanted them to take it back to the Milky Way with you on board so that we could find who was betraying us over there." His face turned into a smile after a few seconds. "I never saw you two getting together though, I thought it would be Edd and Lauren."

"They did it as well." Mathew said as they entered the mess hall. Nearly everyone in the room who was a shadow stared at them. Then burst out laughing. John stared at them for a second confused. "You mean you didn't see that on their cams?"

"All we could see was darkness in their cams." He chuckled. "Anyway, there's going to be a meeting in two hours. Get anything you need done, done." He wandered off and sat down with his original Atlantis gate team.

McKay was here to help with some new technology. Ronon was here because, as he had put in his own words, 'felt like it'. Teyla was here to train the shadows in close combat.

John stood on the table and clapped his hands together to silence the conversations. "Gate operations will proceed as normal." That meant the shadows had no missions yet. "Teyla will be training all of you in close combat." That meant the shadows would be trained later. "And Ronon will teach you how to kill wraith properly." And that meant Ronon was going on their next invasion.

"Yes sir." Nearly ten replied. The others were already back to their conversations. John looked slightly annoyed, but he got down and started a conversation with his team.

"So Teal'c is coming here to train you're pirates?" McKay asked. "I never really liked him, too quiet for my liking."

"Yeah well, he'll be teaching them all sorts." John's gaze stopped on Ronon. "No,"

"'No' what?" Ronon asked.

"You're not fighting Teal'c. Not when I'm around on the base."

Ronon ducked as a leg swung at his chest then rolled to the side as the leg came down to where he had just been. There was a group of watchers around them, most of them men. Ronon tried a straight kick at Teal'c's gut. He caught it and Ronon found himself being swung ninety degrees to the left and hitting the ground. He rolled sideways as Teal'c brought down a fist.

"You two stop!" John and O'Neil cried mutually as they entered the training room. John continued, "We leave you guys along for five minutes and you're making a mess of my base already!"

"You should know better Teal'c." O'Neil cut in. "You'd destroy Ronon."

John turned to O'Neil. "No he wouldn't sir." He pointed to Ronon and said, "Ronon was a runner, I think that surviving the wraith takes more skill than being a Jaffa warrior."

"Bet you fifty that Teal'c would win." O'Neil said rummaging around in his pockets.

"You're on." They both brought out fifty notes and turned back to Ronon and Teal'c. "As you were." They both ordered.

Ronon and Teal'c exchanged surprised glances, Teal'c with one eyebrow raised. Then Teal'c kicked Ronon in the gut. He followed through with a punch to Ronon's back. Ronon rolled again and got to his feet. He ducked kicked Teal'c again. This time it got through and Teal'c stumbled back. They both punched for each other's heads and both hit dead on.

To the crowds surprise neither got up after this. Teal'c was lying on his back, blood dripping from his nose, Ronon the same. Eventually both got up and they looked at each other. Ronon moved his hand out grudgingly and so did Teal'c. They shook hands then smiled.

"I guess I have an equal." Ronon said.

"Indeed." Teal'c and Ronon started to leave the room.

"Do you always say 'indeed'?" Ronon asked.

"Indeed." Teal'c replied with a smile.

When the two were gone, John and O'Neil, very much like other betters in the room, were confused about what to do.

"Do we swap?" O'Neil asked. "They both took each other out after all."

"Nah, we'd end up with the same amount of money." John said. "Anyway, if it was three rounds Ronon would have taken Teal'c down."

"I'll bet on that." O'Neil said.

They both ran after Ronon and Teal'c, O'Neil shouting, "Teal'c!" and John shouting, "Ronon!"

"We missed Ronon and Teal'c's fight." Alex was saying to Edward and John, Mellor, while poking some 'meat' with his fork. "People said it was a good one as well." He sighed.

"Apparently they took each other out." John said as he, too, jabbed a piece of 'meat' with his fork. "How did we miss that?"

"You missed training." Edward said. He was with Lauren training when Ronon and Teal'c had their fight. "Sheppard and O'Neil tried to make them come back for two more rounds."

"Just don't rub it in our faces." Alex said as he looked up from his 'meal'. "When are we going to get some 'good' food?" He dropped his fork in the plate and went off with it to the bin.

John followed. Edward looked around and saw Mathew and Lil at a table, staring blandly into each other's eyes. He stood up and went to find Lauren.

"You all know of the somewhat successful mission Manning and his team went on." Woolsey started the meeting with a brief of what had happened in the last mission. "And of other things." A giggle went out from half the people in the dark room. Woolsey ignored it, but was probably straining to hold the laughter down. "We have taken the Daedalus back and gain valuable information. The trust has a large fleet that we suspect is coming to Pegasus to attack the wraith. They are also building gou'ld Gra'taks at a planet on the edge of the system."

A hologram appeared above their heads. It looked like a ha'tak that had been hollowed out and a human superstructure had been built in the middle. The brace, as many people were calling it now, was flatter than a ha'tak's. And the superstructure was attached by many joints and pipes. It went into the brace's outcroppings as well. They could see that the lower part was triangular and a small dome was at the top of the superstructure.

"This scan was taken, by team four on their mission, two days ago." The hologram changed slightly as he pressed a button. "This was taken today."

It had filled nearly all the brace like a disc. In parts the insides could be seen and the support bars. The gou'ld design architecture was visible on the brace in golden lines with dashes of red in places. The pipes and joints were much thicker and in some places had been covered by the superstructure.

"If they continue to build at this rate," Woolsey continued. "They will be finished in a week."

"What do we do sir?" Someone asked from the back of the room.

"Nothing." Woolsey replied with a smile. "We are going to let them believe we do not know about this."

"Why?" The same man asked.

"Because they will be using them to destroy the wraith." Woolsey replied. "Six are being built. They will not attack us first. Their main goal is to wipe out the wraith." He smiled. "When the wraith are defeated, sixty of you will infiltrate these ships in teams of ten." His smile disappeared. "The gou'ld will have heavy defences, and the weapons used to kill Re'tu have been handed out between their troops. You're jobs will become very difficult from now on."

Alex piped up, "What if they 'do' attack us first?"

"Then we will defend ourselves accordingly." Woolsey replied. "The troops are only with them because they have a larger fleet and say taking down the wraith will be faster. Not because they wanted us dead."

There was silence for a few minutes.

"Meeting adjourned." Woolsey walked off to the side door and left the briefing room.


End file.
